Helmut, list
I disagree that continuity is a 'major trait' of Firstness. It is,
of Thirdness - but the point of Firstness is its lack of continuity,
its lack of time. Firstness is 'present time' and only present time.
No 'before' and no 'after'. There is no continuity to it. It just
'is' right now.
Edwina
On Sat 14/12/19 4:52 PM , "Helmut Raulien" [email protected] sent:
John, List, continuity is a major trait of thirdness, and I think
also of firstness, if one may say, that space and time are fields of
possibility. Anyway, firstness and thirdness are more similar to each
other than each to secondness. Discreteness is a secondness thing, I
guess. But an actual incandescent tungsten wire emits a continuous
spectrum? I would say, this is a pseudo- or secondary continuity
caused by blending of many discrete photons or frequencies. Best,
Helmut 12. Dezember 2019 um 20:15 Uhr
Von: "John F. Sowa"
Ben,
I agree that space and time in quantum mechanics are continuous.
But there is one issue that Peirce understood very well: the
discrete lines in the spectrum of any chemical element that is heated
on earth or in any distant star.
In the so-called "black body" radiation, the filament of an
incandescent light bulb emits a continuous spectrum with a peak at a
frequency that is determined by the temperature. But a photon
emitted when an electron of an atom falls from a higher state to a
lower state has a sharply defined frequency.
Peirce learned that fact when he studied chemistry, and he used it
in his photometric studies of distant stars. Although it may be
wrong to consider a continuous line as a set of discrete points,
there are phenomena in physics whose measurements are discrete.
John ----------------------------- PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on
"Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L to this message.
PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE,
send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the
line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at
http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm [1] .
Links:
------
[1] http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm
-----------------------------
PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L
to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] . To
UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the
line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at
http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .
